hana166

iTrader: (2)

Thanks Mark and Oleg.

Its good to hear your observations, these are entirely consistent with my experience of conventional TC. Long links at the front make the steering less sharp, but nice to control, and you lose in the 180s especially on tight technical carpet which is mainly what I race. I generally use short front links for the response and find an appropriate EPA/Dual rate for comfort in this situation.

Long links at the rear generally produce more rotation, and the car responds quicker to steering input. I like this because you can throw the car into the bends without any delay, and the response is quite linear throughout the corner, I mean the rotation is quite even so there is nothing to catch you out by a sudden change in steering in the corner etc which happens when you have too much initial grip, then the car lets go.

On the ackermann Mark your observations are also what I found with a conventional car. Inner positions give more response. Generally I prefer outer positions for increased corner speed, by reduced angle between the two steering wheels and increased wheel outer angle, and I get the steering back by unhooking the rear with a combination of long links and raised rear hingepins to raise rear roll centre, and get the steering by means of weight transfer (ideal springs) rather than geometry and slip angles, and I move the wing to a forward position so the car turns also at high speed into sweepers.

But the main thing I'm looking for is the exact spring tensions. I use TOP springs, 324gf/mm 306gf/mm equivalent (identical) to Pink front, Silver rear, and anti dive like Steen's setting. Its my magic combination. Xray, Tamiya springs etc don't do it for me I've tried every combination, and keep coming back to Pink and Silver. For me an average driver it works everywhere because the balance is just right. Then all that is required is the correct additive/warming regime to get the tyres just perfect. So the first thing for me is to find the ideal spring tensions, and go from there.

Having said that I guess its about keeping an open mind and making the necessary adjustments..

MDawson

iTrader: (27)

I have a note into Oleg to see if we can get our hands on a table that can help approximate known spring rates and perhaps oil that can cross reference to the appropriate SRS/RHS arrangement/settings and dampner position.

Consider this week 1 for most of the US owners. Good things to come.

mike ivy

iTrader: (51)

Hey Mark,


Nice Run at Horsham the car looks very promising

MDawson

iTrader: (27)

Thanks Ivy. It has big shoes to fill.

oeoeo327

iTrader: (75)

Agreed. The car is truly "mechanical art" in motion, and does seem to have a lot of potential. Thanks for the exceptionally clean run in the main; I can't remember the last time I battled with someone from start to finish without any major mishaps.

MDawson

iTrader: (27)

They should all be that good! Good job!

hana166

iTrader: (2)

It would be great to get an equivalent spring chart. I guess we could calculate our own from the chart in the instruction manual as it provides wheel rates in gf/mm which are the units I'm used to dealing with.

Also an Ackermann chart I got one had one of these with my TOP/CEFX a while back and it was invaluable. Again its something worth doing.

Tbone13

Hello guys,
for me the springs are completily different in that what we know befor, the feeling and handling of changes on the springs are not compartible to other tc's.
on an TC normaly we use the springs and oil to change:
-balance
-tiretemperatur
-weightransfert
-respons
-bumps on the track
-etc

on the A700 its different, I tried a lot of differnt positions on oil and spring a hole practiceday and its all about felling. The car was never undrivable or to loose. the spring setup is all like the driver wants it. Please do your tests and then ask for a springchart. i guess you will not need a chart cause you will fast find your spring position that you like and will not touch it so fast.

for those who want to start with the A700 ..my suggestion is to use a setup from Dennis, Ivan or my last one. they are all very comfordable and easy to drive.
Steen is always driving very differnt setups than everybody and he is having an extrem round and gently drivingstyl. So his setups are not so easy to drive for the most of the people.

for Carpet with rubbertires I can just suggest:
- Cut your topdeck
- remove the flexscrews on the rear under the chassis
- run some antidrive in front (0.5mm)
- play with the reactive caster, start with 0.5mm difference
- have fun

so far.
kind regards
Tom

hightechpaint

my gear diff is very perfect but, the cross working good just in one direction , if your gear diff is not perfect, return upside down the cross .

Subliminal

Well first run this weekend and I can say nothing other than WOW.

The car was amazing, I can't remember ever just putting a car on the track and bring able to instantly wheel it round the track at speed and feel very comfortable with it.

Went with Laptev's set up as the base point and loved it, going to now start playing with the active caster etc to get the car 100% how I like it.

Only problem I experienced was I had one impact with the boards at speed on the Saturday testing ( The track I race at is quite unforgiving ) during which there was no damage to the car other than the front CVD falling apart. Rebuilt and checked it but it then proceeded during racing on Sunday to fall apart if I clipped the boards or even the spring plastic on some of the apex's. First Aid kit arrived from Oleg today so will replace the spring clip holding it all together and hope its just where it deformed following the impact.

All in all though absolutely AMAZING. I can't even explain how happy I am with this car. Can't wait to get out and do some more testing.

MDawson

iTrader: (27)

Good to hear. What body/tires did you run?

Regarding the axle assembly - after ensuring the snap lock is engaged, consider using a small piece of heat shrink tubing to secure the collar. This was helpful with other makes of ECS-type units.

John.C

iTrader: (37)

I'm still buiding my kit. I'm either a slow builder OR I'm taking way too much time staring/admiring all of the components. I'm glad to see all of the positive feedback from the folks that have run their cars on the track. I'm hoping to have mine out next weekend.

Durability
The front foam bumper and the plastic bumper/body posts (as well as the servo saver) in the kit all appear to be Tamiya issue. This is great news to us as we can use (if desired) the following hopup items to increase durability to the front suspension. They have served me well to strengthen the front end of my Tamiya TRF416 and 417 cars. These pieces will bolt on directly with no need for modification.

- SQUARE STV-10G Suspension Guard
- Parma T2 Hard Foam Bumper






Drivetrain
I snapped some pictures of the drivetrain and took some basic measurements. As soon as I complete my A700 build I plan on taking the same measurements of my 417's drivetrain.

MarkMcC

I had the same problem also, I'm of the opinion it was my own doing. During the build I lifted what i thought was a 2.5mm flat blade (3.5mm when checked) for the prising open of the ring, I then had an issue getting the ring to snap shut, for the next shaft i used a 2.5 and it snapped in reasuringly well.

From what I can see I went beyond the flex point of the ring, so the first time I clipped a marker it popped out. To make maters worse I rebuilt the shaft using the same ring and didn't even make the grid for the next round lol. I won't be making the same mistake again, live and learn. lol.

Mark, great idea with the heatshrink its at the top of my list for the rebuild, better safe than sorry.

Oleg Babich

Dear friends,

Suspension stiffness in the cars of Ronald Volker and Jilles Groskamp are as follows according to my calculations:

Front suspension 87-96 gF/ mm
Rear suspension 109-116 gF/ mm

All the latest published Ronald's and Jilles's set-ups are placed within these ranges of suspension stiffness.

Please note : this is not the stiffness of individual springs but the total suspension stiffness - same as on our graphs.

I think that it is good start point to find your right springs setup for A700.


CVD rings - please don't use more than 2.5mm width blade flat screwdrivers to open them!

hana166

iTrader: (2)

Great Thanks Oleg,

Today I had my Xray with Pink and Silvers next to the A700 and set the spring tensions by feel. Totally unscientific I know but I ended up with position 2 both ends, Front A4.4, B2.2 which is 90gf/mm and Rear A6.0 B1.0 which is 113gf/mm almost exactly between your quoted stiffness so that should be a good starting point